Texans Mini-Camp Day 1 – Duane Brown Missing, Watson Returns From DC

HOUSTON (CBS HOUSTON) – Here are the news notes and quotes from the first day of Texans mini-camp at the Methodist Training Center on Tuesday June 13th.

>> RAINING ON THE BULLS ON PARADE – The Texans began their first mini-camp practice under warm and sunny conditions at the Methodist Training Center. About 40 minutes into the practice it began to rain forcing practice inside the indoor bubble adjacent to the fields. The remainder of Texans practice was held indoors.

>> MISSING IN ACTION Duane Brown was still missing from Texans practice and this is the first that is considered mandatory as he continues to hold-out with a contract dispute. Brown will be fined for every day of mini-camp and training camp that he misses. Head coach Bill O’Brien didn’t have much to say on the subject of Brown’s absence. “I don’t have much to say on that. I’m just coaching the players that are here. Duane knows how we feel about him, how I feel about him. I’d love to have him here but, again, at the end of the day, the guys who are here, that’s who we’re coaching,” O’Brien said.

>> WATSON WHITE HOUSE VISIT – Texans first-round pick and QB of the future Deshaun Watson was back in a Texans uniform one-day removed from a memorable trip to Washington DC. Watson, along with his current Texans teammate DT Carlos Watkins and the rest of his former Clemson teammates and coaches visited the White House Monday in celebration of their national title win in January. Watson was asked Tuesday if he had any second thought on visiting the White House, “No, it was on my bucket list. The White House visit was awesome. I had a great time with my teammates. There weren’t any second thoughts” Watson said. More on Watson’s visit here. STORY

>> ON THE ROAD AGAIN The Texans will be true road warriors during the pre-season as they will host training camp outside of Houston for the first time at the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia. The team will also have joint practices in New Orleans this year according to comments by Saints coach Sean Payton STORY

>>CLOWNEY CLIMBING THE LIST Jadeveon Clowney was ranked 49th on the NFL’s Top 100 list and said he hopes to be higher on this list in the future. Read Clowney’s comments here. STORY

> QBs AT WORK The Texans worked on end of game situations near the tail end of practice including late game with the Texans trailing with small amounts of time remaining. All three quarterbacks worked in these “end of game” situations including Deshaun Watson who enjoyed the opportunity to work in the challenging situation. “It’s always good. Coach OB (Bill O’Brien) does a great job of throwing different things at us at practice, not being really aware of, just kind putting us in uncomfortable positions. They always say get comfortable being uncomfortable, so I think that was a cool thing for us to do.”

>> WORKHORSE WATSON Deshaun Watson has put in a lot of time on the practice field even outside of regular working hours. How does Bill O’Brien know, he gets intel from his son. “(Watson’s) in here all the time,” O’Brien said. “There is no questioning this kid’s work ethic. He’s in here on the weekends. I wasn’t even here this past weekend, my kid was in here. I don’t know how that happened but he was in there I think with Fitzy’s (Craig Fitzgerald) kids and saw Deshaun in there, ‘Hey dad, Deshaun was in there.’”

Alex Del Barrio covers the Houston Texans for Sportsradio610.com and is the color commentator for the Houston Dynamo. He also hosts “ADB and Murph” with Matt Murphy which can be heard on Saturday afternoons 4-7 pm Follow Alex Del Barrio on Twitter: @alexdelbarrio

Alex Del Barrio

Alex Del Barrio
What I do for SportsRadio 610: I'm a jack-of-all-trades for 610. I report on the Houston area pro teams, anchor sports flashes, write for Sportsradio610.com and host on the weekends and as a fill-in. Wherever they need me to be, I...